Speculative fiction one book at a time

I like to read books on my e-reader. My reasons are pragmatic--left to my own devices, I surround myself with books, and tend to accumulate more books than I place back into circulation. Ebooks help me contain that urge a bit. My ereader/tablet, which runs something like Android 2.1 (great for audio, great as an ereader, great for email and web browsing, but no flash for on-line video), has worked without a hitch for years.

At the end of last year, I noticed that my reading shifted a good bit. I used to read mostly novels, with some non-fiction about chess and nature and other of my hobbies, sprinkled in with a bit of poetry here and there. But last year I tilted toward magazines about technology, with non-fiction books taking up most of my book reading. I enjoyed a non-fiction narrative about a Texan's in-state "big year" birding, and another book about the birds of the Texas Panhandle.

I missed, a bit, the calming effect of engaging with a novel. So this year,I launched into a series of science fiction novels. I'm not blazing through a huge pack of them. I read about one a month so far this year. Each time I finish one, I go to the store I use for such things on-line,and buy another. I choose new ones using "top 10 lists" from science fiction pundits and webloggers. For me, novels are a real anti-depressant, like hiking but more workable in bad weather.

I dislike the way that an overwhelmingly male minority of internet tweeters and commenters believe that it is socially acceptable and lawful to issue threats of violence at primarily women posters who express a position. I'd like to see such terroristic threateners prosecuted more often. When I see women activists and non-activists and, well, anyone persecuted on-line with death threats or rape threats or what-have-you,it makes my blood boil. This has infected so many of these internet debates. Just as law enforcement has begun to do with child safety issues, law enforcement should begin dealing with those who threaten violence on-line.

I am going astray, now,though,when I'd rather be lost in a space opera.